My 2011 SXSWi Recap

Finally back and settled from the post-return from Austin, get back on the wagon phase I wanted to recap SXSW this year from a personal view leaving out some of the more industry related info circulating at the day job. (Sidenote: here is a GREAT selection of some of the panels at the event) It was AMAZING. This being my second year, I knew what to expect. Sort of. I mean you can't really predict everything at this event. It's a constant roller coaster of panels, beer, meat, parties and networking combined into 5 days of sunny Austin.

I think brands did a great job. Sure, everyone said it jumped the shark because of them. Sure, I'm biased because I work for them, but look at the extra experience they added. Would you have had a place to hang out outside if the Pepsi Max Lot wasn't there? Would you have gotten so many free rides to and from all of the parties? Would you have had half as many of the parties? Nope.

The people as everyone else has said is always the best part. You can't deny that. You hang out with old friends. You get closer with co-workers. You make new friends and you make experiences that last a lifetime. All in 5 days filled with endless amounts of BBQ, tacos and thank you GroupMe for the grilled cheeses. Please do that again next year.

It was great to see New York represented so well down there. If you look at a bunch of the big parties, you see that many are from big New York founders and companies. foursquare, Hashable/GroupMe, Tumblr's party, The Barbarian Group. All awesome parties thrown by New Yorkers who have been pushing their limits to make the event all it could be. Plus the attendees were all pimping each other out and supportive. Vin Vacanti always says how New York is so supportive of each other, and this was the perfect example of it.

Some favorite moments to remember:

• A special thank you to the many pedi-cab drivers who took me back over the bridge to the Hyatt. My tired feet were not walking and your loving stories made my trip wonderful.
• To continuous dance partying with Reece, Kathryn, Joe, Joe, Aaron, Emily, Rachel, Sarah, and Ben.I broke one pair of shoes but it was worth all of it.
• To all of the BBDOers. We rule. Our GroupMe chats will forever be hidden and I look forward to next year.
• To all the fabulous ladies who represented and represented well down in Austin. Digitini proved that there is an awesome amount of smart and talented women involved in the tech space and we are doing really great stuff.
• The GroupMe/Hashable/SPIN party was the bomb. Why do Austin bars have to close at 2am? Our dance party was ready to go on for hours.
• Dancing on an empty shark tank at Qua, which sounded (and looked) much more like a place that Stefon would recommend but ended up being one of my favorite moments. Cheers to you SJ for the zoot suit riot dance.
• BBQ
• Tacos--I ate 400 of them it felt like
• To the RunSXSW group. We ran. No one else did. Really. How great was that.
• The pedi-cab race to the Skype party.(Watch if you have a minute-it's funny) Congrats to my former employer Bite Communications and Ben White and the great job they did at that party. Cut Chemist rocked and it was a chill night without the loud and crowds.

Photos here:

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

if this then that (@ifttt): the easiest way to do things on the web

I can't code. I am not very good at figuring out really techy internet things. I try and sometimes I figure it out, but I'm not a genius at it. But, I love doing things like this. Figuring out ways to cheat the system, make things simple and do it in a cool way.

Finally, there is something I understand. It's called ifttt.com - If this, then THAT. It's kind of like Yahoo! Pipes for people who don't understand Yahoo! Pipes. Or as someone said, digital duct tape.

Brilliant right? It seriously couldn't be easier.

Want to post every photo you send to flickr to instagram? Great. It can do that. (Note: I was wrong, can't go to instagram..yet!)

Set up a phone call to wake your butt up in the morning and go running? I did that. Easy.

Want to send an email every Friday reminding you to call our parents? Great. Done.

Want to send a tweet out once it finally reaches 75 degrees here in the awful cold New York and tell your followers to go outside? Done. (I did that. be warned)

If you want to change the task, it's just as easy.

It's currently not fully public but I received my beta access within a day. Try it and become obsessed.

Book Report: Chelsea Lately-My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands

If you're looking to laugh out loud while reading, read this.

If you're not afraid to get looks on the subway or LIRR when strangers glance at the title of your book, read this.

If you enjoy reading about hilarious stories involving late nights out, vodka and sex, read this.

Sometimes I enjoy a book that doesn't take too much thinking. A "beach read" in the winter is just perfect sometimes. I work a lot during the week so when I want to read, I sometimes want it to be light and not require much thinking. Chelsea's books are unbelievable and perfect for this type of reading session. Hilarious.

The book, as you may guess, chronicles her one night stands and encounters with men in her late twenties.

Some key quotes I particularly laughed out loud to, and a preview to what kind of book this is:

• "There are two kinds of people I don't trust: people who don't drink and people who collect stickers."
• "At some point during almost every romantic comedy, the female lead suddenly trips and falls, stumbling helplessly over something ridiculous like a leaf, and then some Matthew McConaughey type either whips around the corner just in the nick of time to save her or is clumsily pulled down along with her. That event predictably leads to the magical moment of their first kiss. Please. I fall ALL the time. You know who comes and gets me? The bouncer."
• "It was Valentine's Day and I had spent the day in bed with my life partner, Ketel One."

On Amazon.

jams

Sigh No More from Mumford & Sons is brilliant work music if you're currently looking for some. Play it on Spotify (if you're one of the lucky ones) I've had it on for the past week.

And my head told my heart
"Let love grow"
But my heart told my head
"This time no
This time no"

What songs do you listen to at work? I'm looking for new jams.

I'd rather be known as a good father than a good CEO

Hamish McLennan on Stepping Down - BusinessWeek:

"But you can't let your job define you. My wife and I started talking about me giving up my job last fall. We were so far from home, and we didn't want the children to lose their connection to family and friends back in Australia. There wasn't one single moment when it suddenly struck me that I had to give up this job, but my daughter is 13, and my son is 11. They'll start to be out the door soon. I don't want them to leave home and say, 'Well, you had a great career, but we don't know you.''

This article is touching, give it a read. So many of my colleagues and friends work day in and day out leaving 2% of their time for personal matters. At the end of the day, I agree with Hamish in that I don't want work to take over the life that is supposed to be so much more of it. It's so important to find that balance. Take a vacation. Make time for your friends and family. And yourself.

Run SXSW

Friday begins SXSW Interactive. This means you prepare yourself for extra long days of beef, beer, new friends, networking, panels, parties and yes...more beef and beer. The days can be long and sleep is not a priority, but luckily there is a new option this year to help relieve you from your "gross lazy" feeling from not working out while you're there.

RUN SXSW sponsored by Nike's Make Yourself Movement

What: Two 4 mile loop runs around Lake Austin

When:

• March 12th @ 9am CT - run lead by CNET’s Caroline McCarthy and Emily Gannett from IRL Productions
• March 14th @ 9am CT - run lead by foursquare's Naveen Selvadurai and Mari Sheibley

More details: http://runsxsw.eventbrite.com/

Follow the Twitter for updates: @runsxsw

Do it. See ya there :)

A Bag for my Laptop and my Life

Finding a bag that a)carries everything from a MacBook to 3 lip glosses to an overwhelming amount of tech accessories b)looks and goes with everyday outfits for at least a few days of the week and c)doesn't weigh 500 lbs is actually quite a challenge. Men have it easy (as with many things) Throw on a backpack or find a good Brooklyn Industries bag and you're on your way for a few years. The females have it a bit different.

In search of the perfect spring bag to meet the above needs, I headed over to macy's today (yes, I realize macy's herald square on a Sunday is a death wish) and found my solution. The Ambush Shopper bag by Olivia + Joy is PERFECT and just in time for my week in Austin starting Friday where one bag to carry EVERYTHING is needed. It's lightweight, perfect size and the color will work throughout the spring.

Had to share one find as it usually takes me years to find a bag I like for this need.

Olivia + Joy Ambush Shopper Bag: $88

David Burke Townhouse

I'm not one to blog about food. I'll write Yelp reviews or share a photo or to elsewhere, but this restaurant was too damn good not to touch.

Went with my lovely friend Sarah and some friends of hers who I am now happy to call friends of mine to David Burke Townhouse. The space was delightful with Chihuly art all over. You feel like you're in a huge home and the service is just so over the top good we didn't even have to ask for anything. It just came. This may have also been a result of us drinking down a large Magnum bottle of an amazing wine, but hey it was Friday.

Our menu:

Appetizers (split for the table)

• Burrata Mozzarella
• Pretzel Crusted Crabcake (OMG GOOD)
• Crisp & Angry Lobster
• Parfait of Big Eye Tuna & Salmon Tartares

Entrees

• I had the Lobster "Steak" which I can only describe as lobster and potatoes combined together with heaven, baked and served and devoured within 10 minutes.
• Others had the lamb, the chicken, and the Dover Sole. All received rave reviews.

Dessert

• Of course we got the Cheesecake Lollipop Tree. OF COURSE WE DID.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

We rolled ourselves out around 10:30 after taking 2 1/2 hours to finish our magnum bottle of wine. It was such a fantastic experience. Highly recommend going. Oh, and the limo outside isn't for a rockstar, it's if you want to smoke inside it when it's cold out. Don't really get that, but hey!

Why I Hope PR Pros Don't Start Using Tout

I've seen this company Tout demo twice in the past 2 days. Once at the NYXSW event and the other at last night's NY Tech Meetup. The company is interesting. The tagline is: "templatize, track and organize your repetitive emails."

The use case example is if you're a startup sending out multiple pitches of your company to VCs and other potential investors. At the end of the day, your emails are probably very similar and you could save time if you had an easy way to just send the emails out all at once without the traditional blind email in the bcc line.

It's interesting from a sales and efficiency view for sure and I can see how this would work. But what makes me cringe is the potential for the PR industry to pick this up and start using it. For years now the industry has been criticized for spamming journalists with blind pitches. Every year, lists are published with bad pitches and emails from PR pros. I mean TechCrunch publishes one a quarter.

This tool could just immediately jump start the blind emailing brigade that (good) PR pros have been trying to move away from. Imagine a PR person needing to send a pitch out to 50 people in the morning. That's about a few hours of work right there to carefully craft emails and personalize them (if they're doing it right) If they see Tout, they could use it in a way to cut down time and pre package the emails. Sure it's efficient, but it's still lacking that personalization that is needed. And forbid the day that this company (not saying it will, but hey ya never know) accidentally crosses emails or sends out multiple pitches to the wrong person.

So in ending---the idea for this company is interesting for sure from an efficiency view. I just really hope that this one particular industry doesn't pick it up. Keep emails personalized. Spend the 5 minutes writing it.